


Balance

by Hiddlesbatch_girl



Category: British Actor RPF, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M for future chapters, Romance, Smut, mentions of eating disorders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-19 02:40:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17593073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hiddlesbatch_girl/pseuds/Hiddlesbatch_girl
Summary: A young ballerina bothers Tom Hiddleston with the noise her shoes makes, they met and stuff happens. (Sorry, I'm not good at summaries)





	Balance

“…Yes, Mum, I just landed. I’m gonna go fetch Bobby first, have a nap and then I’ll go grocery shopping.” Tom said to the phone.

“Alright, Tom, remember you will come visit Friday, you can stay all you want and please bring that gorgeous pup of yours!” He could hear lots of noise on his mother end, she must have been in one of her clubs. “I miss him so much, I’m having second thoughts about giving him to you.”

“Yes, Mum, I remember. I bet Bobby will be absolutely delighted to see you again, I will start to take him on walks without carrying him that much so we can start running soon. And _I_ missed _you,_ too.” He chuckled, absentmindedly shaking his head while he picked his luggage from the baggage claim area.

“Oh! Don’t be silly, I miss you very much too, and I miss seeing your face without all that hair that makes you look like a tramp,” she huffed, “I hope you shave and get a decent haircut soon.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be holding my breath for that, I happen to like the beard and the longer hair, that you very much.” He heard Diana sigh on the other end and smiled, picturing her shaking her head in a resigned manner.

“Alright, alright… I have to go now, Blanche is saying that it’s my turn. I love you, Tom, bye.” She made kissing noises and he smiled.

“I love you too, mum, see you on Friday.”

“See you.” He hung up, and sighed. He really had missed his family this few months and was really glad he got to spend the holidays with them this year. Tom couldn’t wait to see his mum, sisters and nieces.

Getting a cab at noon wasn’t very easy, but after a few tries he was finally able to catch one, he gave the cabbie Luke’s address and mentally prepared himself to call his publicist and friend.

Luke, like always, answered after the third tone, “Luke Windsor”

“Hey, Luke, I just got to London, I’m on a cab right now to pick up Bobby, are you ready?”

“Tom, lovely to hear from you, yes, your little nightmare is ready, you owe me a pair of new shoes and a belt.” His friend didn’t sound very mad, but he didn’t sound happy either, Tom closed his eyes and sighed.

“Okay, sorry about that, mate. I’ll be there in an hour maybe less if the traffic isn’t so bad, thanks for taking care of him”

“Yeah, you’re welcome, although I’m happy you don’t have any trips coming soon, because I’m not volunteering to look after him anytime soon.” Tom laughed but immediately stopped when he heard a loud _crash_ through the phone, “For fuck’s sake! Bobby!!” Luke shouted, he must have left the phone on a table because Tom could only hear his muffled voice, “Give me that… bad dog, stay there… no. Stay.”

Tom strummed his fingers on his leg and waited for the phone to be picked up again, a bit of shuffling later and… “Luke, I’m really sorry, I’ll pay you everything he might have broken, sorry, but he is just a puppy, he will learn soon enough and-“

“Tom, stop. It’s fine, it was just a cup of coffee, I’m glad he didn’t cut himself with the shards. And you will be here soon, so I won’t kill him to stop his adorable puppy eyes.”

“Great, thanks mate. Did you already walked him?”

“Yes, yes, he is ready to go, and I hope you get here soon ‘cause I have a meeting in two hours and I don’t fancy being late.”

“Right, see you in a bit.”

“Goodbye.”

Tom put away his phone and then yawned. Jet lag was really getting to him, he couldn’t wait to get home, shower and have a nice long nap, hopefully until dinner. These time changes were impossible to keep up with and he was practically living out of coffee and red bull. When he got to Luke’s house he asked the cabbie to wait for him and went to fetch Bobby. His friend opened the door before he even got there and a brown mass of fur came running and barking to greet him.

“Hello buddy! Did you miss me? Yeah? Good boy! I missed you lots too!” The puppy barked excitedly and kept jumping to try and lick his face, Tom knelt and scratch him behind the ears, the puppy’s tail didn’t stop waggling and Tom had to keep turning his face to stop Bobby from licking his mouth and eyes. “Oh, you’re such a good boy! Yeah!”

At that moment Luke exited his house with Bobby’s bag, where Tom guessed were his harness, leash, toys and bowls.

“Here, all his things are in there, I had to wash him the other day because he thought it would be fun to play in the mud, so there is a bottle of shampoo there too.”

Tom stood up and put the bag over his shoulder, then he gave his friend a hug and thanked him, again, for looking after his dog. They said their goodbyes and Tom got in the cab again, with Bobby in his lap with the head out of the window. He gave the driver his address and they were home a few minutes later. Bobby had calmed a bit on the ride, so he quickly paid the driver -with a generous tip for allowing the dog in- got his things from the boot and made his way inside the building.

He greeted the doorman and walked to the elevator. Normally he would’ve taken the stairs but with all the things he was carrying and the tiredness that seemed to creep up on him, even more now that he was so close to his house and bed, he decided to not risk himself falling. ‘ _Better safe than sorry’_ , he thought.

When he _finally_ was inside his house, he quickly let the dog down, got rid of the bags that were making his back hurt and started shedding his clothes to take a much needed shower. He practically raced upstairs to his ensuite and there he took off his shoes, pants and underwear, then he jumped in the shower and couldn’t help the loud moan that fell from his lips when the warm water touched his back and relaxed his tired muscles.

He took his sweet time washing himself. He quickly dried his body and put a towel around his waist, he didn’t bother drying his hair, something he was sure his mother would have chided him for not doing and went to his bedroom to take his long needed nap. The man put on some clean boxers checked the time on his bedside clock -1:37 p.m- and fellface first on the bed, he got comfortable and closed his eyes, expecting to instantly fall asleep and sleep at least three hours…

***

Tom was startled awake with what sounded like… ‘ _Hammering? Who the hells starts hammering at…’_ he checked his bedside clock and groaned. It was only 2:16pm! He hadn’t even slept an hour yet! And the sound seemed to be coming from right upstairs, just above is head. He could already feel a migraine forming and then Bobby started barking from downstairs, _obviously._ He groaned again and buried his face on the pillow -that was wet now, because he hadn’t dried his hair and now he really regretted it-.

The noise finally stopped and he sighed contently, cuddling his pillow more and thanking the heavens that he could get to sleep again when…

_Thump, thump, thump-thump-thump-thump-thump._

_‘Bloody hell!”_

The man couldn’t take it anymore, he put on some sweatpants, a shirt and went upstairs to knock on his neighbour door, heprepared a speech in his mind to kindly ask whoever lived there that he needed a God damn nap or else…

Nobody answered, he was getting more and more irritated by the second, the noise was louder up here so he tried knocking a bit harder, and again, nothing.

He couldn’t hear any background noise except for the on and off _thump-thump-thump_ , so he tried one last time, just when the noise stopped, he knocked harder than the other times. Finally he could hear light footsteps approaching. A few seconds later the door was being opened and he found himself face to face -or more like face to chest, her face, his chest- with a beautiful young girl wearing a bun, headphones hanging around her neck -which explained the no-hearing thing- a leotard with light pink tights underneath, a flimsy skirt, leg warmers and a pair of shiny new pointe shoes on her hand.

_‘So, a ballerina then, that may explain the noise,’_ he thought.

The girl shyly smiled at him, with a flushing face and the shiniest eyes he had ever seen, leaning against the doorframe and sort of expecting… something… _Right!_

“Hello! Hmm… Sorry… I’m Tom,” he extended his hand, “I live downstairs, didn’t mean to interrupt your practice or whatever you were doing but-“

“Oh, its okay!” She said, letting go of the door so it opened wider, shaking his hand delicately, “I’m Claire, I’m sorry, are you here for the noise? I didn’t realize there was someone downstairs and I guess it would be annoying to hear the tapping while I break in the shoes.” Claire looked to the floor embarrassed, fidgeting a bit with the shoes in her hands.

“Erm, yes, normally I wouldn’t mind. Really. It’s just… I got home from a large trip today and I’m a bit jet lagged, so if yo could… keep it down for a bit?”

“Oh! Yes, don’t worry, I was done with these pair anyways, and I’ll try and keep the breaking to a minimum here, and practice too, so I don’t bother you with the noise,” the girl bit her lip and Tom couldn’t help but stare, thinking about what it would be like to kiss those pink lips… ‘ _Wait, stop! She must be over a decade younger than you, and we all know how that ends’_

“No, no, no. Don’t compromise your art for me, it’s just for today, really.”

“Well… If you say so…”

The two of them stood there in an awkward silence, Tom was so occupied admiring the young beauty before him, that he didn’t notice her getting slightly uncomfortable, until she snapped him out of his reverie saying:

“Well, hmm, Tom, was it?” He nodded, “guess I’ll see you around?”

Tom absentmindedly nodded again while she started to close the door, “Yes, yes… I’ll be seeing you…” His mumbling got cut off by the door closing slowly in front of his stunned face.

_‘Great Tom! I bet she thinks you are an idiot and a pervert now.’_ The man sighed and made his way downstairs, still thinking about the beautiful young ballerina, wishing he could see her again soon.


End file.
